Police said Veeru Bharti, a resident of Dhanbad town, would go out at night and set afire the vehicles parked along the roads. Image Credit: Lata Rani

Patna: Police have arrested a man who would torch vehicles parked along the roads at night and get immense pleasure while watching them go up in flames. The accused had burnt nine vehicles in the past one week in Jharkhand that had caused panic among the vehicle owners.

Police said Veeru Bharti, a resident of Dhanbad town, would go out at night and set afire the vehicles parked along the roads and outside the buildings. He would normally burn the vehicles with the help of a lighter and stayed at the place until fire completely engulfed the vehicles.

“In the past one week, he burnt at least nine vehicles in various localities and became a major headache for all of us. He has confessed his involvement in the crime,” a senior police official from Dhanbad town Sanjeev Tiwari told the media on Tuesday.

On Sunday night, the accused set afire as many as seven vehicles which included four cars, two auto-rickshaws and a motorbike. He had emerged as a terror in the town after he went on targeting one vehicle after another. Such was the panic that the residents of the city were afraid of parking their vehicles outside their homes and had to guard them at regular intervals at night.

The police caught the accused after someone informed them about a man trying to set afire a car with his lighter near Lindsay Club on Monday night. The accused told the police that he got immense pleasure in torching the vehicle and seeing them going up in flames.

As per the report, the youth turned psychopath after someone torched his motorbike parked outside his house five months ago. The incident shocked him so much that he began targeting the vehicles parked outside the homes and setting them afire.

Last month, the police in Rajasthan arrested a similar man who had gone on torching the vehicles parked outside the buildings by pouring petrol. The accused was arrested from Kishangarh town on January 28.